


Full of Life and Full of Love

by Cimmeria



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Episode: s03e16 The Southern Raiders, Firebending & Firebenders, Gen, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Sibling Rivalry, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, Zuko loves Azula even though she’s insane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:53:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25011196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cimmeria/pseuds/Cimmeria
Summary: Azula may be insane and homicidal, but she’s still Zuko’s sister and he loves her despite everyone’s better judgement.Or: A different reaction from Zuko when Azula falls at the beginning of the Southern Raiders episode.
Relationships: Azula & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 218





	Full of Life and Full of Love

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from “Little Talks” by Of Monsters and Men cause even though the song is meant to be romantic, it reminds me of Zuko and Azula.

Zuko has always been his mother’s child. It’s painfully obvious, now more than ever, since he’s left home in disgrace for the second time. (As a young boy, he denied it, looked desperately for parts of his father— his grandfather, even— in himself).  _ Azula_ is Ozai’s child. It’s what has separated them from the very beginning— since birth. Azula, born during the height of summer, immediately became Father’s favorite. Zuko’s winter birthday has done nothing but earn his father’s scorn. 

__

His sister produced her first flame months before him, excelled during their lessons where Zuko struggled, and most importantly, exhibited Ozai’s same lust for power and ambitious mind always set on domination.

__

They’re opposites, as sure as if Zuko had been born a waterbender. 

__

But Azula is still his sister. When she was very young, before either of them had begun their firebending training, they played games together. They messed around in the palace gardens. Azula cried on his shoulder when she fell and skinned her knee. He pulled her hair and she  _ didn’t  _ set him on fire for it. Exactly like any other pair of siblings might behave.

__

It would be so easy to drop the moniker of “Father” from the man he was born to. Zuko may as well just call him “Ozai,” or “the Fire Lord.” (If only severing that connection was so easy). But removing the word “sister” from his vocabulary when it came to Azula would feel wrong— he knows it would.

__

Seeing her, once again being the subject of her murderous tendencies at the Boiling Rock had shaken him more than he cares to admit. And Zuko’s happy to see Sokka and Katara and their father reunited, he really is, but every time he looks at them laughing together it’s like someone is stabbing him in the chest. Blurry memories of a faraway beach house and a faraway family, lost to him forever, shove their way into his head.

__

He wonders why they’re so messed up. Were Azula and he just born to be full of hate?

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He’s not quite ready for the next time he sees her. It’s too soon. Way too soon. 

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Zuko can feel it in his gut when the air temple starts shaking early in the morning. Explosions paint the stones in flashes of orange and acrid, black smoke stings his eyes. It has to be her. Who else could it be? 

__

Toph and Haru blast a hole through the mural they’d slept by, offering an escape, but it feels wrong to run. 

__

He’s glad though, that the others are leaving through the tunnel, rather than joining him in fighting because when her airship rises up from the lower levels of the temple and she’s standing there, Zuko is rooted to the spot. He doesn’t need anyone else seeing this weakness tied to the very core of him.

__

“What are you doing here?” he asks, stupid words nearly caught in his throat. 

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“Isn’t it obvious?” she says, wind whipping around her body like it’s adopted her same kind of wrath. Her painted lips twist. “I’m about to celebrate becoming an only child!”

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He barely avoids the blast of fire she launches his way. The force of it shoves him hard onto the cool temple stone, and he rolls with the momentum of the discharge. Blue ribbons of flame dissipate into the air, heat gracing his skin, as he jumps up again. 

__

The temple is crumbling like ash under his feet, but he sees his opportunity. He can’t go back now, and the ancient airbenders’ structure offers little protection from the onslaught of fire raining down on him. The fast-falling pillar will have to be good enough.

__

It’s hard, running across the cracking ground. Pitfalls mar his way, slow him down more than he can afford. When he jumps off the edge of the pillar, his stomach drops and once his body finally slams into the steep side of the airship, he knows it wasn’t enough. Zuko’s fingers scramble briefly for purchase against the fast-sliding metal of the Fire Nation insignia and then he’s falling through the open air.

__

He never was very graceful. Especially compared to his sister.

__

But that won’t be the death of him, at least not this time. 

__

A second airship rises up fast out of the clouds below him, blood red rushing up like the hard ground. A blast of fire from his feet— enough to propel him upwards— ensures that the collision isn’t fatal. He stumbles, rolling over the surface of it. Moans once he finally comes to a stop.

__

His head spins when he stands again, but a brief glance upwards ensures that the ship will soon be level with Azula’s. This fight isn’t over yet.

__

A glimpse of movement in the sky above him turns out to be Appa, and a shot of blue fire briefly illuminates the bison’s stone shield. Something must have gone wrong with the tunnel. 

__

Azula has her back to him once they are finally of equal height. Zuko can see Aang and the others in Appa’s saddle, looking back at him, but his attention is snapped back to his sister as she turns.

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This time, the distance between them is short enough.

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Zuko slices his way through her attacks, blue fire dissipating to either side of him, curling against his cheeks. Launches his fist forward, flames trailing behind it. She sends a series of fireballs towards his face. Orange-and-yellow meets with her blue-and-white like angry waves crashing against each other. 

__

When Zuko throws his next punch, a halo of fire encircling his fingers, Azula moves like a mirror in front of him. Their twin attacks meet like binary suns and it may as well have been a bomb. Zuko is thrown backwards into a dizzying skid, his body rolling against the sloping airship. He hasn’t even caught his breath when suddenly there’s nothing under him.

__

He falls headlong into the canyon. Tears prick at the corners of his eyes as the wind thrashes against his face, but he can distantly see Appa diving towards him. 

__

It’s Katara who reaches her arm out to catch him. He’s jerked down into the saddle, her grip bruising, and the soft furs cushion his landing only slightly. There’s no time for him to be surprised by it. Instead, he feels like he might be sick, and throws a white-knuckled hand onto the carved edge of the saddle, bile rising briefly in his throat.

__

It’s like he’s plummeting towards the ground for the third time today when he suddenly remembers Azula. Zuko pushes past Katara to the back of the saddle, leaning over the edge. His breath hitches when he sees her. 

__

His sister flails her arms against the wind. Helpless, like a child, against the will of the air around her. She’s  _ still  _ just a child, he realizes not for the first time.

__

_ She’s not gonna make it. _ Zuko sucks in a breath. Almost asks Aang to turn around. To save her.

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Then she seems to regain her bearings. Launches a column of sapphire flames from her feet which propel her towards the canyon wall. The clasp that held her hair in place is suddenly out and dragging sparks down the stone.

__

She slows to a stop.

__

Wind whips inky dark hair around her face, and smoke rises from her sleeves. She seems so different with her hair down like it is— Zuko is briefly reminded of Mother. Then there’s that smirk again, lips curling cruelly. Like Father’s.

__

He leans back again, and turns away from his sister as they leave the Western air temple behind them.

__

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed and thank you for reading!!  
> I might do a companion to this piece set after Zuko and Azula’s Agni Kai but idk yet...
> 
> Also, why are fight scenes so hard :’(


End file.
